Unforeseen injury
by Tesju11
Summary: A regular day supply shopping is interrupted by a group of marine. Luffy gets injured while protecting Zoro. The guilt ridden Zoro brings him back to the ship, but will he be able to face his captain when he regains consciousness?
1. New weapon

It was a warm sunny day in the port town Nanohana. The strawhats were busy restocking supplies for their trip to Alabasta. Until out of nowhere a group of marines surrounded the crew. At least fifty marines stood ready to attack at any moment. 

A small grin slipped on Zoro's face, "Bring it on" he said taunting the marines. 

"Oi, Zoro, don't incurrence them!" Usopp shouted in an anxious voice. 

"I guess there's no other way" Robin sighed with a small twinkle in her eyes. 

Nami sighed at Robin "don't act like you're not enjoying this" 

"Don't worry Nami-Swann, your prince in the shining armor will protect you!" Sanji said with a slight melodie in his voice, which almost sounded like singing. 

Wendy and Chopper just watched from a distance trying not to attract any attention. 

With almost the whole crew ready to fight they waited for their captain's orders. 

"Awhhh only fifty?" Luffy pouted. "Zoro and I can take care of this. The rest of you finish the shopping and get the Sunny ready to leave." Luffy ordered. 

"Yes, captain!" the crew yelled in unison. The crew except Zoro left. The marine tried to follow but Zoro and Luffy blocked their way. 

"Not so fast" Zoro said with a smirk "Play dance with us first". 

Three marine jumped at Zoro. Their swords clashed with his en loud clangs could be heard. Zoro ducked beneath their blades and he slashed upwards hitting one of the marines square in the jaw with the end of one of his swords. The second marine met Zoro's second sword, which pierced his shoulder. The marine screamed in pain while stumbling backwards in the other marine. 

Luffy's voice could be heard over the clanging of swords, "Gomu gomu no gatling gun!" he yelled while taking out at least twenty marine. Than he glanced over his shoulder at Zoro. Zoro was successfully fighting one marine after the other, his swift swordsman skills seemed endless. Suddenly a marine aimed a rather unusual gun at Zoro. 

"Zoro look out" Luffy shouted while running to protect his first mate. 

Zoro saw a flash out of the corner of his eye followed by three loud bangs. He closed his eyes and prepared himself for the impact but it stayed silent, he was fine. When he opened his eyes Luffy was standing in front of him. 

"Thanks Luffy" Zoro said, "luckily you're made of rubber" he joked. But the lack of response worried him. "Luffy?" he asked, but no reply. He took a step towards his captain, who started to fall. At that moment Zoro realized Luffy was bleeding. "Luffy?!" he screamed while closing the gap between him and his captain."How could this have happened? You're made of rubber!?" Zoro yelled while he caught Luffy just before he hit the ground. He held Luffy in his arms and looked him over, there were three bullet wounds, one was just a scratch but the others ripped through his shoulder and abdomen. Zoro needed to get Luffy to Chopper as soon as possible! Chopper may be able to access and repair the damage. 

Zoro stood up and glared at the other marine, none of them dared to approach the swordsman. A dark murderous intent could be feld, the dark aura froze the marines in place. 

"What have you done?, Why is he hurt by bullets?" Zoro shouted at the marine. None of them answered so Zoro laid Luffy gently on the ground and he grabbed one of the marine by his collar. He then put the blade of his sword against the marines throat. 

"I won't ask you twice, What have you done?" he said threateningly. The marine didn't answer so Zoro pushed the blade farther to its throat, piercing the skin slightly. A little stream of blood began to run over the marines shirt. 

"It's seastone! We used sea stones to make bullets to neutralize his devil fruit powers." The marine pleaded while begging for his life. 

"Damm marine" Zoro cursed. He dropped the marine, which slammed against the floor. He picked up Luffy and ran in the direction of the Sunny. None of the marine dared to follow the pirates after what happened. 

In the meantime at the Sunny everybody was wondering where their captain and his firstmate where. 

"What's taking so long?" Nami complained. "They should be back already". 

"They're probably lost somewhere, you know Zoro doesn't have any sense of direction". Sanji sighed. 

"Look they're here!" chopper and usopp yelled simultaneously. 

"Finally" Nami said in an irritated voice. 

"Something is wrong" Robin said. 

"So you realised it too" Sanji said in a concerned tone. 

"What do you mean? What's wrong" Nami asked confused. She looked over the edge of the ship in the direction her friends were running. At that moment she realised Zoro was carrying Luffy!


	2. Guilt

The whole crew was shocked at the sight of Luffy. His clothes were absolutely drenched in blood and he had several severe wounds. They ran over the deck to their wounded captain and Chopper immediately started to look him over.

"What's happened?!" Nami screamed in shock.

"Lu…..Luff…..Luffy...got...s..sho…..shot" Zoro panted out of breath.

"How is that even possible?, he is made of rubber for god's sake!" Nami hysterically

yelled.

Zoro tried to catch his breath before answering. "They made sea stone bullets" he finally said.

"What?!" The whole crew stared at Zoro in disbelieve.

"The new bullets are drenched in seawater and made of seastone that way they are able to counteract the devil fruit powers." Zoro explained.

"That explains Luffy's wounds" Chopper murmured, while wrapping bandages around Luffy's chest.

"How bad is it?" Zoro asked

"One bullet missed his face just barely and left a scratch. The second bullet is still lodged into his shoulder, so I have to operate on him. The last bullet seems to have gone through his abdomen, but the damage there is minimal. Furthermore he lost a lot of blood and we have no one who can supply a F-type. I stopped the bleeding for now, but I can't do the surgery safely without any blood. All we can do is clean and dress his wounds to prevent any infection and wait till he is strong enough to do the surgery without a blood transfusion." Chopper rambled.

"W….will he be alright?" Nami asked with tears in her eyes.

"I can't say for sure he will make a full recovery, his shoulder might pose a problem…." Chopper said sadly.

"Don't worry Luffy is strong!, he survived far worse than this" Robin tried to encourage the rest.

"I'm sure Robin is right" Sanji said. "But first shouldn't we move Luffy to the infirmary?" He asked while looking at Chopper.

"Ohhhh! That's right" Chopper said while snapping out of his haze.

"I'll take care of it" Robin said and a row of hands appeared from the deck. She gently lifted her captain and moved him over the row to the infirmary.

Chopper followed his patient and the rest of the crew watched after him till the door was closed. They were all shaken by what had just happened, especially Zoro. He hadn't said a word after explaining the situation, he just sat alone at the end of the deck in silence.

"Are you alright?" a voice said. Zoro looked up and saw Sanji staring at him.

"Y…..Yeah I'm fine" Zoro said while refusing to look Sanji in his eyes.

"I can tell something's bothering you" Sanji tried again.

"Just leave me alone, I'm fine" Zoro said in a surprisingly small voice.

Sanji sighed and lowered himself next to Zoro on the deck. He stared at the sky while smoking a cigarette. "Damm marine for putting us in a situation like this" he murmured. "Seastone bullets….. Who would even invent such a thing?" he kept talking while watching Zoro out of the corner of his eye. "They are becoming more of a nuisance everyday" he complained.

"It's not only their fault" Zoro finally murmured.

"How come?" Sanji asked curiously.

"Nevermind" Zoro said while turning away from Sanji completely.

"Fine" Sanji complained. "Why don't you go and see Luffy?" Sanji asked.

"I don't want to see him right now…." Zoro said under his breath.

"Why not?, you know he wants to see you when he wakes up. His first question will be: "Is Zoro alright?" Sanji said.

"I know…." Zoro murmured.

"So go and see him" Sanji said irritated.

"I can't…" Zoro murmured a little agitated.

"Why not?" Sanji almost yelled.

"Because it's my fault he's hurt!" Zoro finally yelled in Sanji's face. He immediately regretted telling him and stood up to leave, but a now gentle voice stopped him.

"Why do you blame yourself? What has really happened?" Sanji asked gently.

Zoro sighed while sitting down again and he told the whole story, about how he lost focus and Luffy jumped in front of him as a meat shield to protect him. Sanji listened to the story and finally concluded: "It isn't your fault, none of us could have known that the bullets could actually injure a rubberman".

"I know but still you know Luffy, he won't let me apologize and he will act like nothing has happened. I might even deny his injuries" Zoro said.

"You're probably right" Sanji chuckled. "Just be man mosshead! Get in there and face his forgiveness!" He joked at Zoro.

"Who are you calling Mosshead!, Bussybrow!" Zoro yelled angrily, while getting up to go to the infirmary.


	3. Awake

Chopper turned around when he heard the door behind him open. Zoro was leaning against the doorpost with an expressionless look on his face.

"How is he?" he asked looking at Luffy.

"There are no changes" Chopper said sadly "He should be awake by now".

Zoro stared at Luffy from the doorpost but he didn't dare to come closer. It's was almost as if he was ready to leave at any moment. Chopper glanced from Luffy over to Zoro and wondered why the first mate seemed so uncomfortable. There was an awkward silence in the room, Chopper kept staring at Zoro but he didn't seem to notice. The only thing he paid attention to was Luffy's still pale form in the bed. Suddenly their trance was broken by a pained moan coming from the bed.

Chopper rushed over to Luffy. "Luffy?! Luffy?! Can you hear me?" he almost yelled.

Luffy's eyelids fluttered open and his face contorted in pain. He slowly reached his hand up to his injured shoulder but Chopper stopped him before he was able to touch his wound. "What happened?" Luffy asked in a daze.

"You were shot with special bullets by the marine" Chopper explained.

Luffy suddenly shot up and immediately bend over in pain. "Luffy! lie down, or you'll open your wounds again!" Chopper screamed in total panic. Luffy didn't seem to care he scanned the room, as if he was searching for something. At that moment Chopper realized that Zoro had left the room.

"Wh…...ere…..is…...Z….oro?" Luffy managed to ask with great difficulty.

"He is fine. He was just here." Chopper quickly answered. "But you have to lay back down now, cause you can't afford to lose anymore blood" Chopper added.

Luffy didn't listen to Chopper. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed, and tried to push himself of the bed using one arm. Chopper tried to force Luffy to lay back on the bed but he didn't want to put his wounds under any more pressure than they were currently under.

"Luffy please listen! Zoro is fine go back to bed and I will get him!" Chopper said loudly and sternly. Again Luffy didn't listen he went through the door and blinked his eyes furiously to adjust to the sunlight. Chopper caught up with him and stared at the shocked faces of the crew. Before anyone was able to comprehend the situation, a raw voice asked: "Zoro?" Luffy's throat was dry and sounded hoarse.

"He's in the crowsnest" Sanji answered. Before the crew could react Luffy stretched his arm up to the crowsnest and pulled himself in.

"Luffy!?" Chopper yelled while running to the ropes to climb up to the nest. Sanji however stopt him "Give them a few minutes" he said.

Meanwhile Zoro panicked when a hand grabbed the edge of the nest. Luffy dropped next to him and he looked terrible.

"Moron! Do you want to die?!" Zoro said in surprise. Luffy just sat next to him and leaned against Zoro's shoulder.

"We….need…..talk" Luffy panted obviously taken by the pain.

"We don't, everything's fine, go back to Chopper" Zoro sighed.

"Can't….you…...blame….self" Luffy panted again".

Zoro tried to think of an answer but his thoughts were interrupted by a pained gasp. He looked over his shoulder at Luffy for the first time and he noticed a puddle of blood that was slowly forming under his abdomen.

"You reopened your wounds" Zoro said panicked "We need to get you back to the infirmary!" Zoro tried to lift Luffy's good arm over his shoulder but Luffy denied any help.

"First….talk" Luffy panted barely audible.

"Fine you win we'll go to the infirmary and there we will talk" Zoro said highly irritated." A slight grin appeared on Luffy's face while he let Zoro carry him once again.

"Quick bring him into the infirmary" Chopper yelled at Zoro, when he caught a glimpse of Luffy's blood. "Put him on the bed and hand me the bandages and a syringe full of antibiotics and pain meds". Chopper ordered Zoro. Zoro quickly replied to Choppers orders, while cursing at Luffy for being such a handfull. "It's like he enjoys making us worry?!" he muttered.

After sometime all the bandages were replaced and Luffy was once again out of the danger zone. Midway through the procedure however he had again lost consciousness. Zoro sat in a chair next to his captains bed, waiting for him to wake up.

Later that night Luffy began thrashing in his bed, Zoro quickly got up to hold him in place to prevent him from reopening his wounds again. Luffy's eyes shot open and a panicked expression could be seen on his face. His eyes searched to room until they landed on Zoro, his muscles relaxed and he let out a breath which he didn't realise he was holding. Zoro moved back to his seat and waited for his captain to regain composure. A few minutes later Luffy spoke.

"a nightmare" he bluntly stated.

Zoro wanted to know what his captain feared but he decided to leave the subject, because he was certain Luffy didn't want to talk about it. Besides there was another talk they needed to have.


	4. Final

Zoro sat next to Luffy's bed, facing him. None of the two knew how to start their conversation so an awkward silence settled in. The silence was broken by Zoro.

"I'm sorry I got you injured" he said.

"It's not your fault" Luffy answered in a gentle tone that upset Zoro even more.

"It is! You got hit by those bullets because you were protecting me, I didn't pay attention. My mistake got you hurt" Zoro said upset.

"We couldn't have known that those bullets could actually hurt me" Luffy replied.

"I know" Zoro gave in "but next time just let them hit me instead".

"No way!, you are my nakama and I want to protect you. Besides you would have done The same for me" Luffy said.

Zoro sighed "Why are you always so difficult?"

Luffy just tilted his head and looked sheepishly back at Zoro like he couldn't comprehend the question.

Suddenly Zoro burst out in laughter. Earning an even more confused look from his captain.

"What's wrong?" Luffy asked amused at his suddenly happy swordsman.

"Nothing's wrong, everything's perfectly fine" Zoro replied.

Luffy didn't understand Zoro's sudden change of heart, but he didn't mind, at least Zoro was happy again.

A few months later Luffy had totally recovered from his injuries. Chopper was able to get some blood with the F-type and the surgery on Luffy's shoulder was successful. There weren't any complications. The wound in his abdomen healed quickly and within no-time Luffy was again able to eat large stacks of meat!

The end.

(This was the first fanfiction I wrote. I hope you liked it! :) please leave reviews so I can improve my writing skills and maybe I'll write more stories. Thank you for the support!)


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